This report presents detailed national statistics on employment status in 1960 and work experience in 1959 in relation to various social and economic characteristics. The statistics in this report are based on a 5-percent sample of the population enumerated in the Eighteenth Decennial Census of Population, taken as of April 1, 1960.

To describe the demographic and social composition of the labor force, data on such personal characteristics as age, race, nativity and parentage, marital status, household relationship, school enrollment, number and age of related children, number of children ever borne by women ever married, and residence in 1955 are cross-classified by employment status and number of weeks worked in 1959. Also presented are statistics on the characteristics of families, such as number of family members in the labor force by income of head, and type and size of family. In addition, statistics on the number of hours worked for employed persons by their marital status and household relationship are included in this report. Most of these data are shown by urban and rural residence.

In addition to describing the labor force participation of various groups in the population, both during a calendar week and over the course of a year (1959), this report provides a basis for analyzing many of the factors affecting labor force growth. Data on the personal characteristics of persons not in the labor force and on their work experience in 1959 are useful in estimating the size and characteristics of the groups that constituted a reserve of manpower in early 1960.

The present report supplements the reports for individual States and for the United States originally published in the 1960 Census of Population, Series PC(1)-C reports, "Social and Economic Characteristics," and the Series PC(1)-D reports, "Detailed Characteristics." These reports form two of the four chapters of 1960 Census of Population, Volume I, Characteristics of the Population. Part 1 of Volume I presents data originally published in the four separate United States Summary reports; the remainder of the volume is divided into a part for each State and for the outlying areas, containing the data originally published in the separate paper-bound series.

In Volume I, data on employment status and weeks worked in 1959 are presented for the population as a whole, for each State, standard metropolitan statistical area, urban place,1 and county. Also shown are cross-classifications of employment status with age, marital status, income, and school enrollment; and weeks worked in 1959 cross-classified with age and income. Data on the number of hours worked during the reference week, cross-classified by age and school enrollment, sire also presented in Volume I. The tables in the present report provide greater detail at the national level.

Several of the Series PC(2) reports include data classifying labor force status by various characteristics. The report PC(2)-7C, Occupation by Industry, covers detailed national statistics cross-classifying occupation by industry for employed men and women. The report PC(2)-7A, Occupational Characteristics, covers such subjects as urban-rural residence, sex, age, race, size of family, marital status, mobility, years of school completed, hours worked, class of worker, weeks worked in 1959, and income received in 1959, for persons in each of approximately 500 detailed occupational categories. Other related PC(2) reports, either published or in planning, contain employment status and work experience data in relation to the subject of the report. Subjects covered in these reports are fertility, mobility, school enrollment, educational attainment, characteristics of families, nonwhite population by race, Puerto Ricans, and persons of Spanish surname.

The PC(3)-1A report, State Economic Areas, Includes data on employment status for State economic areas by urban and rural residence.

Data for 1950 on employment status and work experience similar to those shown here were presented in the report entitled 1950 Census of Population, Volume IV, Special Reports, Part 1, chapter A, Employment and Personal Characteristics. (For a discussion of 1950-1960 comparisons, see section on "Comparability.")

Data on employment status and number of hours worked are also collected by the Bureau of the Census In the Current Population Survey (CPS) and published monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, in Employment and Earnings. CPS data are also collected yearly on annual work experience and published annually by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Monthly Labor Review. In April 1960, the data for this survey were collected from a sample of approximately 35,000 households in 333 areas throughout the country. In addition, data are collected in the CPS on personal characteristics of the labor force, such as marital status, school enrollment, income, and motility, and published annually in the Series P-20 and P-60 Current Population Reports. The statistics provided by the Current Population Survey are, in general, designed to be comparable with the decennial census statistics. There are, however, certain elements of difference, as explained in the section on "Comparability."

Data shown in this report can also be obtained for central cities of urbanized areas, urban fringe, other urban, rural-nonfarm, and rural-farm areas, on a reimbursable basis. Requests for unpublished data, giving a specific description of the figures desired, may be made by writing to the Chief, Population Division, Bureau of the Census, Washington, D.C., 20233. Inquiries concerning unpublished data should be transmitted to the Bureau as soon as possible because tape files are not maintained indefinitely.